


Otherside

by Captain_Marigold



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Champion Vax, Episode: Dalen's Closet, Spoilers, Vex Died for a bit, Where did she go, what if...
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-03
Updated: 2020-05-03
Packaged: 2021-03-01 23:48:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 577
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23975539
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Captain_Marigold/pseuds/Captain_Marigold
Summary: On the night before her wedding, Vex'ahlia de Rolo drowned. Where did she go, before Pike pulled her back? And who might she have seen?
Relationships: Vax'ildan & Vex'ahlia (Critical Role)
Kudos: 36





	Otherside

**Author's Note:**

> SPOILERS FOR THE DALEN'S CLOSET ONE-SHOT!! So if you still haven't seen that one yet, read no further! For those of you in the know, more notes at the bottom.

Vex was floating, gently, in a wide, warm ocean. As soon as she registered this, she panicked, thrashing out at the water around her. It was too close to drowning. But there was no iron weight of manacles at her limbs, no salty water dragging past her; she was floating, weightless, free. 

Opening her eyes, she looked out into an endless dark, filled with pinpricks and streaks and spirals of light that all seemed so far away. There was no sea and no air, no up or down. She thought maybe she was moving, drifting along in some idle current, but she saw no change around her. 

Except – there! Her hunter’s eyes caught a shape in the darkness, a shadow moving against the stars. As she watched, it shifted; it grew larger – or was it nearer? It seemed almost to pull the shadows from the darkness and wear them as a cloak, wrapping and growing and shifting and forming until: she saw long black hair and pale pointed ears, a lithe form and magnificent spreading wings.

He looked exactly as he had that fateful day in Vasselheim. But as her eyes searched her brother’s face, she saw a blurred softness to the once-sharp edges of his outline, a glow that betrayed a body not made of flesh and bone.

“Vex’ahlia.” His voice came from his form and from the stars, from infinitely far away and so very close. It wrapped about and embraced her, like the memory of a mother’s lullaby, “My sister.” 

“Vax,” her own voice, close to breaking, small and single and human. “It’s you – it’s – how is it – ”

And then he was at her side, his steps sure across the nothingness between them. His hand reached out to cup her face, cool against her skin and the gathering tears. “It’s alright. I’m here. I’m here.”

She pressed into his touch, reached up and gripped his fingers as warm tears ran down over both their hands. He tilted his head to hold her gaze, his expression so familiar that it made her breath catch in her suddenly aching chest. 

“I always wanted to see you at your wedding, Stubby, but this seems a bit excessive.” Vex tried to laugh, a wet sound that got caught somewhere in her throat. “You look beautiful.”

Vex looked up at him, her twin, her other half: her best friend, wrapped in shadow and walking on starlight; ripped away for eternity but here for a moment: “I miss you.”

And then she was in his arms, encircled by his wings. 

“I know,” he whispered into her hair, so like his. “I know,” he pulled back again, his own eyes bright as they found hers. “But you have a beautiful baby girl, and a husband who loves you. You have so many years left to live. And you are going to have a _wonderful_ life.” 

She watched his lips twist into a sad smile, so familiar on her brother’s face. 

__

“I am so proud of you.” 

__

Vex’ahlia didn’t speak – she couldn’t speak. Slowly, so slowly, he leaned in, tilting her head to press a kiss against her brow. 

The world began to fall away – Vex began to fall away. There were no stars, no void, no wings; no legs, no body, no hands. There was nothing but the cool press of his lips against her forehead. And then there was nothing at all. 

Vex’ahlia de Rolo woke up on a beach. 

**Author's Note:**

> This one came to me while I watched the one-shot live, and I had most of it written out before I finished the episode. Therefore, my Champion Vax does not reflect how Liam played him at the end. After sitting finished on my computer for half a year, here it finally is.


End file.
